


death spiral

by nanosaur



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Original Character(s), absolutely incomprehensible to all but like five people, my knowledge of military rankings is based entirely on repeat viewings of cadet kelly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 20:38:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19410961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanosaur/pseuds/nanosaur
Summary: ochre's story has two beginnings, and only one of them comes before the end





	death spiral

“Ah, Ochre. Amaranth. Nice of you to grace us with your presence.”

The pair in question sheepishly went to stand in place as their classmates tittered in amusement. Their teacher, Sargent Bix, fixed them with a pointed stare, antennae waving indignantly, before she went on lecturing.

“Now, as I was saying, rankings within the Queensguard are determined by-“

“I told you you shouldn’t have waited up for me.”

Amaranth’s words sprung into Ochre’s mind, although the other girl was still outwardly putting on all the expected airs of an attentive student.

“Now we’re both in trouble.”

Ochre shrugged before remembering she was supposed to be standing at attention as well. She was never quite as good at acting.

“Eh, I don’t mind. Bix doesn’t like me anyway, she would have just found something else to be mad about.”

“Come on, it’s not like she hates you.”

“Oh, she definitely hates all of us.”

Ochre was pretty certain of that, actually. The training of new Queensguard recruits wasn’t exactly a highly vied-for position, and there were rumors among the cadets that a process of drawing names from hats was involved in assigning it.

“Still, you could have just let her hate _me_ for today. I was the one who overslept.”

“Nah, I couldn’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because then you’d be the only one in trouble.”

“Ochre, that doesn’t make any- oh, I think we’re supposed to be doing something. Were you paying attention to her?”

“What do you think?”

The rest of their peers were already moving in response to the instructions they’d been busy ignoring. It didn’t take long to figure out where the exercise was headed, however, as everyone began to gear up with their armor and armaments of choice.

“Ugh, sparring,” Amaranth groaned in Ochre’s head. Ochre actually kind of liked sparring but decided not to rain on her friend’s pity parade.

Instead, she made for her own weapons: a simple shortsword and a wooden shield. Each had a long history of being used for training, and years of wear with little upkeep had made them about as formidable as wielding a butter knife and a plank of wood in combat. The sword’s blade was dulled and rusted. The shield was covered in chipped yellow and orange paint, the original design of which was completely indistinguishable. Still, Ochre liked the weight of them in her hands. She liked to hold her offense and defense close to her body; to make herself compact and deadly.

“Hey Ochre, I think we’re due for a rematch.”

She groaned internally. She didn’t have to look at Kaol to know he was walking with that obnoxious swagger. She generally was indifferent towards her peers, but some of them went out of their way to get on her nerves.

“Aw, you’re not scared, are you?”

Some of them _really_ went out of their way to get on her nerves.

She abruptly stood and began walking without looking at him.

“Well, come on. You wanted a rematch, didn’t you?”

* * *

Ochre and Kaol stood a few yards apart, staring each other down. They were tensed, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Some of their peers stopped to watch the fight unfold, ignoring their teacher who snapped at them to get back to their own sparring.

Kaol made the first charge, running head on at Ochre. She raised her shield to block a swing from a two-handed sword that sent tremors through her body. She pushed the offending weapon back and away from her, then quickly backstepped out of the way of the second swing coming from her blindside.

She absolutely hated Kaol’s fighting style. He liked dual wielding two-handed swords, crisscrossing both pairs of arms in order to hold one at each side of his body. It was a fighting style she was almost certain he developed for the chief purpose of looking cool. Unfortunately it just made him look like a jackass who didn’t know how to use swords.

Even more unfortunately, that appearance was deceiving. He was a jackass who knew how to use swords really well.

Ochre found herself being pushed back as he pressed the offensive. Every block with her shield sent her stumbling and attempting to parry with her sword nearly tore the weapon from her hand. She was being worn down, slowly but surely.

Block. Hit. Dodge. Block. Hit. Dodge. They were falling into a pattern, and with every foot of floor Ochre lost, Kaol’s cocky confidence grew. She just had to break the pattern, just had to find a way…

She saw a swing coming towards her shielded side, the first of a two-hit combo. She angled the shield and allowed her weight to practically fall forward on it as Kaol’s sword came down hard. The shockwave of it vibrated through her, but Ochre managed to stay on her feet. The swing was deflected at an odd angle, and Kaol’s balance began to falter as his second attack was disrupted.

Seeing the opportunity, Ochre swung her shield up towards Kaol’s wildly flailing sword arms, cracking him in the wrist and sending his second sword clattering towards the floor. He made a quick lunge for it, but she was quicker, and swept it out of the way with her own weapon. It was her turn now.

Kaol switched his stance to hold his remaining weapon with all four hands, but the fight had been lost the moment he was disarmed. He could only attack Ochre one side at a time now, leaving her plenty of room to press the offensive.

Now they were travelling the other way across the room. Kaol backstepped away from Ochre’s swings, his attacks bouncing off her shield. They were both worn down, but Kaol’s assurance had turned into desperation. It only took one wrong move to knock his second sword from his hand, and a moment later he was knocked back on the ground, defeated.

Ochre let him fume there for a moment, his antenna flicking angrily as he glared at his fallen swords, before she sighed and offered out a hand.

“Come on. It was a good fight.”

After a moment he begrudgingly took her arm and mirrored the sentiment, albeit in a much grumblier tone.

“Good fight.”

* * *

The class continued to cycle through sparring partners, but most of the fights after that were uneventful for Ochre. Kaol was one of the only ones who could regularly best her in a fight, so the next few spars were short-lived and easily won.

She continued cycling through her peers until she eventually reunited with a familiar face.

“Oh, hey Ochre.” Amaranth said.

They were both pretty beat up at this point, though Amaranth had clearly not fared quite as well as her friend. She was bruised all over, and Ochre noted she was favoring one side.

“Hey, Ama.”

“I guess we have to spar, huh?”

“Yeah. Don’t go easy on me, now.”

Amaranth smiled, “If you insist.”

And she charged.

Amaranth fighting style was more similar to Ochre’s, except she had forgone the shield in favor of wielding a pair of daggers in her off-hands. She swept at Ochre with these shorter blades, which were easily swept aside. Ochre stabbed forward with a counterattack. It was straightforward with little force behind it, but even so Amaranth barely managed to step out of the way of it.

Ochre paused for a moment before trying another slow swing. With the angle of it, it would be easy for Amaranth to catch the hilt of Ochre’s sword between her daggers, but the other girl instead tried for a jerky, off-kilter deflection with her sword. Ochre kept laying into her with soft blows until Amaranth growled in frustration.

“You’re not allowed to hold back on me either, you know.”

Ochre paused for a moment, then swung again with more force. She wasn’t attacking with nearly as much ferocity as she had unleashed against Kaol, but still Amaranth was slowly driven back. Ochre let her stance grow sloppy, left plenty of openings for attack, but still her friend couldn’t seem to land any meaningful hits.

She was taken off guard when Amaranth suddenly threw down her own weapons.

“Ochre,” she thought, tone skirting the edge of anger, “stop pulling your hits. We both know you’re going to win this fight, just stop toying with me.”

“I didn’t mean to-“

“I don’t want to be pitied.”

“I wasn’t-“

Amaranth didn’t wait around to see where she was going with that, picking up her weapons and storming off to find another sparring partner. Ochre watched the space where she had been.

* * *

The rest of the day passed in an uneventful haze. Ochre’s emotions didn’t seem to want to function properly. It was like there was a buzzing in her head, and it was all she could do to keep from transmitting it to her peers. She looked to Amaranth occasionally, but the other girl did not meet her eyes.

Eventually class was dismissed, and by then Ochre was screaming to get out the door; to be anywhere that wasn’t here.

“Ochre? A moment, please.”

She momentarily cursed her bad luck and turned back from freedom to where her teacher was staring at her unreadably. The rest of the class filed out around her, some offering brief transmissions of sympathy as they passed. A moment later, they were left alone. Ochre braced for the worst.

“Ochre, I’m sure you know why you’re here.”

Oh, it could be any number of reasons. Showing up late this morning, shattering her last practice shield when she’d tried to use it as a ranged weapon, generally not participating in class, that one time she’d-

“You’re a very bright student. Don’t tell the others this, but I think you’re one of the most talented fighters in the class.”

That…wasn’t what she was expecting.

Ochre tilted her head, “So… I’m not in trouble?”

Bix gave an exasperated sigh, “I didn’t say that.”

Now Ochre was very confused. The teacher went on.

“You’re a very bright student, but you’re holding yourself back. Well, more accurately, you’re letting someone else hold you back.”

Ochre tensed.

“Your friend, Amaranth. She doesn’t have half the talent as you. Frankly I’m not even sure why she enlisted. She can’t fight; she hardly shows up on time; I have doubts that she even remembers the names of half her peers. If you didn’t spend so much time supporting her you would-“

“With all due respect, ma’am, do you know why I joined the Queensguard?”

Ochre struggled to keep her tone in check. Her antennae were vibrating with the effort of it.

“I don’t see how that’s-“

“I joined because Amaranth did. No other reason. And if she left, I would leave in a heartbeat. I’m glad you care about my talents, but the only reason you have them is because of her, and I think she deserves a little more appreciate for that.”

“Watch your tone, cadet.”

Ochre took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn, ma’am. Thank you for your advice, though I won’t be taking it. See you tomorrow.”

She offered a brief salute, then promptly hightailed it out of the room, leaving her teacher angrily yelling after her. That was probably going to come back to bite her tomorrow, but she desperately needed some time to clear her head.

She went to turn a corner towards one of the colony’s main thoroughfares and almost collided head-on with the person standing there.

“Amaranth? Were you waiting for me?”

The other girl nodded sheepishly.

“Yeah… I couldn’t just leave you alone when I saw the teach was going to chew you out.”

“She didn’t chew me out though. Well, not exactly…”

“She didn’t? What did she want you for then?”

Ochre clicked her mandibles thoughtfully, “Nothing important. But anyways, I wanted to apologize.”

If Amaranth noticed the deflection, she didn’t dwell on it. Ochre went on.

“I was treating you like you were fragile, and I shouldn’t have. It was wrong of me, and I’m sorry.”

They lapsed into silence for a moment, then, to Ochre’s surprise, Amaranth began to laugh.

“Oh Ochre, I waited here because I wanted to apologize to you! I know I’m not the best at fighting; it was childish of me to get mad at you for going easy.”

Ochre playfully shoved her.

“Hey! Don’t try to undermine my apology! I said it first!”

Amaranth shoved right back.

“You shouldn’t be sorry for _not_ beating the shit out of me, idiot!”

They continued tussling until it became an inconvenience to other people trying to use the corridor, at which point they burst onto the main thoroughfare and ran, weaving through exasperated pedestrians as they went. All the while, Amaranth’s joyous, wild laughter rang in Ochre’s head.

And something about that made her ache.

* * *

Eventually Ochre ended up back in her room. The day had left her exhausted, and she was more than ready to collapse into bed. She had almost done so too, before noticing something strange.

There was a woman sitting on her bed.

A _human_ woman with a mane of fiery hair and a bright, clever grin stretched across her face.

“Hello there,” said the woman cheerfully.

Ochre stared for a second, dumbfounded, before replying with a greeting of her own.

“Who the _fuck_ are you?”

  


**Author's Note:**

> oh mitski we're really in it now


End file.
